Benefits of GM Food:
With an ever increasing global population, massive 3rd world hunger, and with an estimation that a child dies
for every two seconds world-wide from starvation; this does not even take into account the number of people
who are mal and undernourished, there is a great promise in the use of this technology to benefit not only the
farmers, but also societies worldwide.
Some opportunities to use GM foods for good are:
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Creating plants resistant to weeds, pests, and other diseases
o Corn is the most important and widely grown grain in the United States.
o Corn cannot reproduce without human aid.
o Corn is also vulnerable to many pests and diseases
o Corn requires a lot of nutrients.
Bigger yields to create more efficient use of land, less use of herbicides and other pesticides.
Foods with better texture, flavor and nutritional value.
Foods with a longer shelf life for easier shipping.
A sustainable way to feed the world.
Positive Environmental Impacts of GMO's:
Soil salinity has become a major problem in all agriculture especially in the San Joaquin Valley. This has made
crops less able to grow and in some cases unable to grow at all. White soil is caused by excessive salt.
Researchers are looking at the possibility of using the genes of salt tolerant plants (eg: mangrove) in agricultural
crops. For example:
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A gene from the grey mangrove has been genetically implanted into a tobacco plant, making it able to
tolerate salt stress as well as showing tolerance to other similar stresses.
Creating Sustainability through GMO's:
Some of the most exciting advances in genetically altered plants are for non-food sources. Edible vaccinations
are one such area.
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The genetic engineering of plants has the potential to provide edible plant vaccines that could be used to
immunize individuals against a wide variety of infectious diseases ranging from cholera to AIDS.
One such example:
o the transgenic potato plant that has been produced and tested successfully by utilizing a
genetically engineered food to deliver a pharmaceutical immunization against diarrhea.
Faerber, Jon, et al. "Benefits of GM Food." Genetically Modified Foods. UC Santa Cruz, 2005. Web. 27 Oct.
2014. <http://classes.soe.ucsc.edu/cmpe080e/Spring05/projects/gmo/benefits.htm>.